Veteran Alvin D. Crews Stumbled Into World Of Pedigree-dog Shows

DEATHS

October 15, 2004|By Charlene Hager-Van Dyke, Sentinel Staff Writer

With two wars and a civil-service career behind him, longtime Ponce Inlet resident Alvin D. Crews was looking more for a companion or another hobby when he stumbled into the competitive world of pedigree-dog shows.

After Crews lost his good friend, a longhaired miniature dachshund his family had for years, Crews' daughter Donna Hamilton combed three states before finding Prince, a suitable replacement.

"My husband went and picked the puppy up, I stopped on the way home to get an `It's a boy' balloon and some blue bubble gum cigars and we invited my dad over for dinner," Hamilton said Thursday. "But, we had no idea that he would end up with a show dog that has more pedigrees than probably the queen."

Crews soon discovered that Prince's father lived in Ponce Inlet. After striking up a friendship with that dog's owner, he soon joined the Greater Daytona Dog Fanciers Association and began entering the prized pup in dog shows.

"When my father started getting worse, he thought long and hard about his will and what would happen to Prince and Bo, another dachshund," his daughter said. On Sunday, Crews said goodbye to the two when Prince's father's owner came and picked them up.

Born in Starke, Crews died Wednesday. He was 76.

Crews, who moved to Ponce Inlet in 1977 from Jacksonville, suffered his first heart attack in his early 30s. Because of that, he took early retirement from his civil-service job as an airframe mechanic for the Army Air Corps. He served in World War II and the Korean War. "My dad lied about his age to get into the service," Hamilton said.

A member of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Port Orange, Crews was married to Huguette Pela Crews for 55 years. She passed away a year ago after being on dialysis for more than 11 years.

"I don't know what the medical report will say because he had a lot of illnesses, including leukemia, but he died of a broken heart," Hamilton said.

"They had a special kind of love and I think he just never got over losing her."

Hamilton said her parents, who married after knowing each other six weeks, would always hold hands, hug and tell each other, "I love you."

"They never went anywhere without kissing goodbye," she said.

"I think it was because they had gone through so much together: the war, the one-room apartment. Hard times will either make or break you, and it just made them stronger."

After he retired, the two spent a lot of time in Florida and Georgia on the craft show circuit, selling his woodworking creations such as carousel horses and steps that folded out into an ironing board.

"My dad was always tinkering with something," his daughter said. "He had such a good personality and such charm and wit that when people met him, they never forgot him."